Friday, April 30, 2010

The Palmer Award is given out each year to two LeaderShape graduates who have participated in a national or campus-based session during the previous year (in this case, that's 2009). The award is given to recognize the achievements of those individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to bringing their vision to reality after attending a session of The LeaderShape Institute. The recipients of these awards receive $750 in honor of their achievements.

The Palmer Awards are provided from an endowment gift donated to the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation by Dr. Edmund T. Palmer, Jr. Alpha Tau Omega created the concept of The LeaderShape Institute in 1986 and the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation funded the creation of the initial curriculum design for The LeaderShape Institute.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

It seems lately that everything seems to be characterized as polar opposites. Democrat or Republican. Red or Blue. Fox News or MSNBC. Liberal or Conservative. With us or against us.

The leaders of today and tomorrow need to see past this sucker's argument. Very rarely in life are things just so simple with easy dichotomy. Heck, just do a Google image search of blue states vs. red states and see how many versions different sources show. I've just shown two examples above.

That's one reason we haven't hung our hat here at LeaderShape with any one particular leadership theory. No one author, theory, study, or approach works in a one-size fits all, works every time, way.

One strategy to help you avoid falling into this trap is to seek out multiple sources of information. Look for opinions and approaches different than yours. To illustrate the point of why only looking to one source of information could be dangerous, I'd like to share with you four different takes on the same research study. Each of these articles have a different spin on the same recent study. Notice the different titles:

Nothing is "wrong" here. Just different takes on the same basic information.

Let's be honest. We're all busy. It's easy to only listen, hang out, and agree with people who already agree with what you think or believe.

But there is a danger in doing this. Part of leadership is not doing the easy, way you want it, version. Effective leadership bringing all voices, people, opinions, thoughts, and ideas together and forges a new way forward that's better for all.

Often there are multiple "truths" involved. No one is saying this is easy. But this is one reason why good leadership can be difficult, exciting, challenging, rewarding, frustrating, and needed.